Daily Devotions from The Word Of God… From the heart of Ed Algreen

Posts tagged ‘Patience’

5 ……do all you can to add to your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge;6 to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add patience; to your patience add devotion to God;7 to your devotion add kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to this kindness add love.8 If all these things are in you and growing, you will never fail to be useful to God. You will produce the kind of fruit that should come from your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

OBSERVATION:

Peter started off his book by telling us how blessed we are to be called children of God. He shared that we are truly a very blessed people, and because of these blessings we should be careful to make every effort, and with the help of God, add attributes to our lives that would make us more like Jesus and useful for His service.

APPLICATION:

Wouldn’t it be a really neat thing to look around your Sunday School class, or even your church and recognize one or more of the attributes mentioned in these verses, in different folk. We hear preachers say all the time that they don’t want us to attend church services to soak and sour. But don’t you know that God’s heart would be gladdened if He saw each of us striving more and more each day to welcome one of these gifts from God and then work hard to develop and apply them to our lives? Don’t you know that we would see a reduction in gossiping, insults, ill-feelings and hatred going on in our churches? Wouldn’t it be really encouraging to see the lost flocking to our doors because they ran into a church member during the week and saw these attributes of God alive and active in their life, so they followed up by attending to see if they could also attain those same gifts from God? Friends, if the Holy Spirit is truly living inside of us and we have given Him full reign of our lives, I truly believe that He will guide us into all righteousness and to act more like God every day. When people see this, they immediately think of God. If it takes us telling the average person that we are a Christian, then I believe that very quickly they will see through our flaws or our hypocritical lifestyle. Let me encourage you to join me in striving for righteousness; faith; goodness; knowledge; self-control; patience; devotion to God; kindness and love, for as God blesses us with these attributes, we will become truly useful to Him!

PRAYER:

Lord God, You are awesome in every way. You took ‘pieces of clay’ and made them Your perfect creation, so that we might love, serve and worship You. Seeing that we are still a work in progress, these gifts that you encouraged Peter to share with us today, will only serve to draw us closer to you; be more like You in every way; plus, encourage and motivate others that we come into contact with. Strengthen us today Lord, so that we may serve You better and encourage others along the way. I ask these things, all for Your glory, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE:

There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Wordand read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you atBible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

THE HOLY BIBLE – 11 Teach me how to live, O Lord. Lead me along the right path, for my enemies are waiting for me. 12 Do not let me fall into their hands. For they accuse me of things I’ve never done; with every breath they threaten me with violence. 13 Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. 14 Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. ~ Psalm 27:11-14 ~ New Living Translation (NLT)

THOUGHTS: David had gone through many obstacles, battles and setbacks, and we often do as well in our everyday walk of life here on earth. Fortunately, David realized that he needed the God of all creation to lead him, protect him and guide him, so that he could make if safely through the traps of his enemies. Just because we have been blessed to enjoy life in a different century than David, we know that our challenges are just as real today as they were for David. We have the benefit of reflecting back on the awesome hand of God upon David, and we know that we serve the same living God that he served, and that God can do it all over again just for us. David gave us direction on how to overcome; how to get the help we need and where to get it from. We are instructed to wait patiently for the Lord, for He is not a puppet waiting for us to press a button for immediate action. He knows the perfect timing for us, no matter what the circumstances are, so let us learn to wait on His timing. I found it interesting that the Psalmist would add that we should be brave and courageous. I believe that this is a reminder that ‘waiting on God’s timing’ and Him answering our prayers in His timing, all serve to remind us that God is in control and we are not. He is the potter, and we are mere clay waiting to be molded by the Potter’s hand. I believe this reminds us that since our prayer life is more than just one way posting of our needs list, and that God actually talks back to us, He may very well give orders that may take us outside of our comfort zone. Are you ready to do whatever He says today friend? Yes, we must learn to be patient and obedient, but we must also be prepared for God to possibly steer us outside of our comfort zone.

PRAYER: Lord God, You proved Yourself over and over to our ancestors, and in many of our lives You have already done the same for us. We are such an impatient bunch, please don’t give up on us. We seriously need Your patience with us Lord. Please help us to always wait on the Lord, for only You have all the answers and the power to change hearts and lives so that You might receive the glory due to You. I humbly ask these things in the name of Jesus, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – 2 Peter 1:5-9): 5 Do your best to improve your faith. You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, 6 self-control, patience, devotion to God, 7 concern for others, and love. 8 If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. 9 But if you don’t grow, you are like someone who is nearsighted or blind, and you have forgotten that your past sins are forgiven.

THOUGHTS: Whenever trials and/or temptations come, I believe we quickly reflect on how our faith is tested! However, we find directly from God’s Word how we might maximize our faith, so that we can be better equipped to handle the trials and/or temptations of life. Here’s what God instructs through His servant Peter that we add to our lives so that our faith might be improved:

Goodness – This refers to moral excellence. Where a Christian lives up to his/her calling as a child of God;

Understanding – Make every effort to know what God has revealed in His Word. I don’t know about you, but I am challenged in being able to quote book and verse references, but I believe God has blessed me with a keen ear to know when something is said that either lines up with His Word, or not. We must make every effort to learn and understand what God placed in His instruction Book for us!

Self-control – the God-given ability to master oneself and to control one’s desires and/or passions. Without this, we will be much too selfish to help anyone else, or to please God unselfishly;

Patience – We must seek this quality to be able to continue on in the faith in spite of adversity. Satan can easily hinder our walk and/or our witness when he finds us weak in times of trouble. Endurance is super important to our ongoing faith in Jesus Christ;

Devotion to God – A desire to please God, and a behavior that reflects the character of God;

Concern for others – Brotherly kindness. Being thoughtful about fellow believers. I have often found that as I’ve tried to encourage and/or help others, I am the one lifted up and encouraged! Intentional acts of kindness, or ways that we search out so that we can be kind to others;

Love – Not just a word that we may flippantly throw out in conversation, but to actually strive to love like God loves us.

So why do you suppose these are so important? I believe that in His infinite wisdom, God knew that if we didn’t strive for these qualities, we would be deteriorating in our faith – worsening, weakening, going backwards, and becoming less like Him instead of more like Him. Friend, are you like me, where I must really seek God’s help and guidance for a deeper growth in these qualities of my Christian life? I believe that the mission of God’s Word has been accomplished, for It has truly opened my eyes towards a stronger need for God’s strong hand on my life, my character and my faith. Let us therefore draw closer to God, so that He may freely draw closer to us and mature us in our faith.

PRAYER: Dear God, I believe that You have created us in Your image so that our lives might reflect Your love for mankind and draw others closer to You, even unto salvation. It is obvious in the study of Your Word today that there is much that still needs accomplishment in our lives if we are to truly represent You. Please work on us. Draw us closer to You so that our faith might be enhanced and our lives made more pliable and usable by You. We want to be perfect representatives of the Savior that we love and adore, but we know this can only be accomplished when You have sovereign reign over our lives. Please help us to daily surrender ourselves to Your perfect will. I ask all this in faith, and in the name of Jesus, God’s perfect Son, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or read through Biblical truths on How To Know Jesus, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

The Holy Bible(New Century Version – 1 Timothy 1:15-16): 15 What I say is true, and you should fully accept it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. 16 But I was given mercy so that in me, the worst of all sinners, Christ Jesus could show that he has patience without limit. His patience with me made me an example for those who would believe in him and have life forever.

Thoughts:I believe that these verses speak very loudly to both the believer in Jesus Christ, and to the non-believer (if they would read and accept the written Word of God).

To the believer: I believe that Paul is helping his associate, Timothy, know that he needn’t go into ministering and causing folk to believe that he is superior in faith to them. To us (believers), I believe that God wanted Paul to get across to us that sin is sin, and where God brought us from is no better than where we see those that we are witnessing, or ministering to. However, we are reminded that because of the grace of our Lord Jesus, He looked down in mercy, and because of our separation from God, our unholy lives bore no resemblance to His, however in mercy He heard our prayer, forgave us of our sin and crowned us as children of the King of all kings. As we constantly remind ourselves of where we came from, friends we will better identify with the needs of the unsaved, and we can more readily share with them the kind of loving, merciful, forgiving God that we are recommending to them. Just as Paul shared, we are plain evidence of God’s love and mercy, and we were no more special than the person we are witnessing to, other than we humbled ourselves and surrendered to His call. We gave up that old life and now stand as princes and princesses of the greatest King, only God and Creator, Jesus the only Son of God! Praise be the name of the Lord forever!

To the unbeliever: I believe it is evident that God wanted Paul to make it clear that the same power is available to the unbeliever today that saved Paul, a sinner who was feared by the church because of his undying desire to persecute the church and destroy anything or anyone who claimed the name of the Lord. Yes, in the eyes of many you may be considered a very bad person, but God sees you as His creation, one for whom He allowed His only Son to die on a cruel cross, and one for whom God loves way too much to see you die and go to Hell. Friend, I can safely and accurately tell you this from my personal experience, because I realized some 40 years ago that I needed Christ, and He looked down in love and accepted my plea for forgiveness and oneness with Him. He did it for me, for Paul, and I have every confidence that He will do it for you also friend. Jesus is patiently waiting for your word, what will it be today? Remember, no word at all means ‘No’, and I believe that anyone led to read this devotional today will not make that kind of decision! May God deal gently, but boldly in your heart today, is my sincere and humble prayer for you friend …. because I know that God loves you, and so do I!

Prayer:Jesus, thank You for going to such an extreme to show Your unswerving love for me and all of mankind. Please help me to never forget where You brought me from, in hopes that I can better identify with those that might be far away from You today. I am concerned for my family, friends, coworkers and church attendees who still have not accepted You as Lord, because I firmly believe that Your return is not only eminent, but will happen at any time. I want to meet around Your throne with all my family and friends present. I plead with You today to please melt their hardened hearts and create a desire in them to fully surrender their lives to You, like Paul did and like I and many others have already done. May this be the day of salvation for them today, please, dear Lord. May the unsaved see Your mercy and grace in action today through the many miracles You perform each day in and around us. I bring my praises, these petitions and awesome thanksgiving in the name of the only Savior, Jesus my Lord, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE:If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – 2 Thessalonians 3:5): 5 I pray that the Lord will guide you to be as loving as God and as patient as Christ.

THOUGHTS: Although this was a prayer that Paul offered for his church, I am reminded that there is only One that we are to imitate. Only One that we are to follow as our example. Let’s ponder on this for a bit. God loved us so much that, although He created us, yet He allowed us freewill to do our own thing. He saw that it was difficult for us to be good enough to follow the many laws instituted throughout the Old Testament, so He miraculously brought Jesus into the world, proved who He was by giving Him power to perform miracles, then allowed for His crucifixion – all so that we could have a better way into heaven. This is the purest example of love that we could ever imagine or find, friend. So when Paul prayed that his church would love as God did, he was really praying that there would be no flaws or prejudices in their love one for another. I was reminded that I need to be the same way, and by sharing this with you I am suggesting that you also consider becoming a child of the King and love like He did. Then to be as patient as Christ, I think about the patience He showed when, although having the power of God, He allowed the abuse to continue during His trial and on the road to the crucifixion. He allowed evil men, for whom He was sacrificing His life, to beat Him, drive nails through His hands and hang Him on a cruel cross – all for our good friend. Don’t You know that He could have called legions of angels to His rescue, and angelic warriors to fight and destroy the evil ones that were beating and destroying His body? Instead He endured unbelieving patience because He knew it was all necessary for our good and ultimate purpose. So friends, we not only have an example of love and patience to follow, we are reminded that God Almighty went to great extremes to show His love for us and to provide a means for us to one day enter heavens gates to be with Him throughout eternity! For those who are feeling hopeless and unloved, please recognize through this discourse that there is One who loves You enough that He would die for you. There is no greater love, friend. May this be a reminder for our day to love like God did and endure the patience that Christ did

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for all that You did to show Your love for me and for Your ongoing love towards me every day. When I am feeling unloved, or when I am tempted to love only the lovable, may I be reminded of this short verse today. When I become impatient with those who persecute me, may I be patient and reminded of all that you endured leading up to the cross. Please encourage my friends who will read this devotional today, may they also learn to be more lovable and patient. May we follow Your gracious example. I ask this believing in You for all things, and for Your sake alone, with thanksgiving, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

At this time of the church year I was very tempted to share a few verses with you from Isaiah 7 where the birth of Jesus was prophesied, and which was my Old Testament reading for today. However, when I came to my New Testament reading and meditated on the chosen verses, I believe God revealed to me that there would really be no Christmas celebration this year without the peace and love that this new born King brings to our lives. Friends, in my upbringing I was taught to represent my ancestry well, and to not bring shame on the family. In my work life I was taught to represent my profession well, whether inside the four walls of my institution or out, for I am always representing my profession. Our challenge in today’s scripture is that many of you reading this devotional, like me, probably know the same Savior that I do, and we are being challenged to represent Him well. In fact, to be considered worthy of the calling He has made on our lives, we are reminded in these verses to always be humble, gentle, patient with each other and to make allowances for the faults of each other, because of God’s perfect love in us. Because of the pressures brought upon us through the commercialization of Christmas, this time of the year often tends to bring out the worst in us, instead of the godly qualities mentioned. How might we overcome and be the people that God ordained for His work? Let’s remember that Christmas is all about Jesus, not the gifts we put under the tree or the stresses of insufficient money to buy all that we might want to buy. Succeeding in being a child of the King in every way is far more important than anything our TV advertising might tell us. Humility, gentleness, patience and our love for Jesus is not something we can purchase at the store, yet with Jesus as King of our lives, we can offer lots of these qualities to all that we might wish a Merry Christmas to this year! Let’s pray for each other because of Jesus, instead of getting under each others skin because of the world’s idea of Christmas!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I am reminded that there was no money needed for Your birth – not for a hospital, nor a hotel, nor a crib, nor a car to take you home in. Please help us to return the simplicity shown at Your birth to the celebration of Your birth this Christmas. Let us concentrate more on the Christ child that makes up Christmas and the qualities that You brought to our lives when we claimed You as our King. As we enjoy the richness of fellowship one with another and the warmth of remembering the Christ child born to not only rescue Israel (as in Isaiah 7), but to also save mankind for a future and everlasting life with You in glory, may we then truly celebrate ‘CHRISTMAS’ and be filled with Your presence so that we may go on impacting lives for You in our everyday walk and talk. It’s all about You Jesus, may we keep it that way this Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus! I ask all this in the precious name of Jesus, my Lord, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

If I told you that I was going to send a little stranger kid to college next year, there would be a few questions you would have for me, such as how do I know the kid, how long have they shown a desire to want to attend college, etc. Similarly, in these verses today, we should ask a few questions or rather, observe a few obvious answers:

The Holy Spirit produces the mentioned fruit in those who have accepted Jesus and have a desire to live like Him. Others who do not know the author of the gifts would either not appreciate the gifts or recognize them as coming from God;

These gifts are not given to make us proud, but rather to reflect more of Jesus in our lives – the author of these gifts;

The gifts are beneficial, as they are given to folk who have totally surrendered the passions and desires of their sinful nature. In other words, they are given as a needed replacement for the sinful gifts already surrendered at the foot of the cross;

The gifts serve the purpose of helping us not become conceited, or agitated with one another, or jealous of one another, but instead lead us towards loving one another as Christ first loved us.

By meditating through these verses, I believe you will see where there will be times when you might recognize a few of the characteristics in #4 sneaking back into your life. Please note that these are not of God and should automatically put you in a mode of constant and serious prayer, asking for help from Jesus so that you may see the gifts mentioned in verses 22-23 return to you. Many of us are looking forward to gifts at Christmas. It can be Christmas every day for Christians as God, through His Holy Spirit, showers us with the wonderful gifts mentioned in these verses.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I pray that there will be friends who will read this devotional today and wonder why they are not receiving the gifts mentioned in these verses, because that will indicate a soul that is either strained in their relationship with you or who do not have a relationship with You. It will also indicate that they have been led by You to the truth of Your Word and how it could apply to their life, if only they would surrender their life to You. Father, I pray that many will be impacted by the greatest gift of all this Christmas, Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. As You shower us with the gifts mentioned in these verses, may we allow You to use us as Your representatives to bring joy, peace and love to those that we come into contact with. Please soften the hearts of those we love, who need You as Lord of their life, is my humble plea this Christmas season, and I ask all this in the wonderful name of Jesus, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!